Organizational Thinking Skills Make Stronger Learners!
When someone says they are good at organizing, they typically mean systems for storing stuff. Or they might be good at time management. Or they might easily schedule and balance multiple activities. However, when I talk about organizational thinking skills for learning, I am talking about a brain process of putting information into categories and details.
Organizing information is a hallmark of making learning more efficient and easier. I often tell my students that the “smartest” people think in categories. Keep reading and you will see why…
Organization is involved in every area of academic skills and content subjects.
In language arts skills, organization impacts phonics, reading comprehension, and writing skills. We categorize phonics into rules by vowels, consonants, syllables, and morphology (the structure of prefixes and suffixes). Different strategies are used for comprehension of fictional literature and nonfiction passages. Sentences are organized by grammar rules. An organized paragraph helps build clarity in writing.
A graphic organizer for literary elements can help with reading comprehension AND story writing. The same graphic organizer can be used for any picture book, short story, or novel. The consistency of using the same graphic organizer helps students to know that the structure stays the same even though the specifics change from story to story.
If you are using a Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling, have your kids use it to guide their narrations!
If you teach in a classroom, this graphic organizer can be a great way to have students do book reports.
You will find a link to a FREE graphic organizer for literary elements! Download and try it.
In math skills, the grouping numbers, operations, and equations helps elementary students to solve problems. Attribute blocks (different than pattern blocks) are excellent manipulatives for developing categorization skills.
In social studies, we look at history by sequencing time periods. We look at geography by continents or by landforms. Current events require sorting new happenings into areas of government, daily living, education, economics, technology, communication, transportation, and more. Young learners often see these areas as completely separate. So when we create timelines or flip books with them, kids learn to look for cause and effect.
Science is full of classifications. We start with large categories and narrow to more specific groups. We can design unit studies based on categories. When studying animals, a unit study can look at living vs. nonliving things, then plants vs. animals, then invertebrates vs. vertebrates, and finally the five kingdoms of vertebrates. Many students love to study individual animals. However, learning to sort animals into categories is an important skill that can make a difference in other areas. I like to use mini animal figures (from Toobs or Safari Ltd.) to have students sort by color, biome, or classification.
Organizing information is an essential study skill!
So what happens when a student doesn’t easily sort information into categories?
Well, for adults who are organizationally challenged, big box stores sell containers. We can hire a consultant to help us organize our homes. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that some kids struggle with classifying.
Organizing information is a learned brain skill.
Some kids pick it up easily. Students with dyslexia, ADHD, or autism can get frustrated or don’t even see the need to think in categories. Often they just don’t see the structure.
Explicit instruction is direct, overt teaching of a skill.
Explicit instruction is the main way to help kids who struggle with organizational thinking. Explicit instruction is like explaining the punch line of a joke. For people who don’t understand what makes a joke funny, an explanation helps a person to “get it.” Explaining the structure of any school topic can help a student with dyslexia to “get it.” Rather than telling students WHAT to think, graphic organizers help students to do their own thinking within the structure so their own ideas can be conveyed to others in meaningful ways. I use graphic organizers a lot. They are kind of like the plastic containers for organizing stuff.
Graphic organizers work!
Organizational thinking skills are important for other tasks in life also. Once a student is explicitly taught how to organize in one area, generalizing to other areas is more likely. Some students with more severe learning disabilities may need help to see that associative hooks from one subject can help with other subjects.
Here’s an example:
Read a nonfiction book together about a famous scientist in history. Point out that as we learn about the scientist, we are also gathering facts about a science topic, remembering information about the historical context, and comprehending what is read. That’s 3 brain tasks in one activity!
In neurotypical students, the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” takes place at developmental milestones – often around 4th grade or age 10-11. For kids who have some type of learning issue, that transition may take a bit longer to happen. Some students need to be taught those organizational skills directly by showing them how and checking on their attempts at organizing or classifying. That doesn’t mean they are less intelligent because everyone has strengths and weaknesses.
To make learning more effective, we need to change the way we teach!
If you want to know more about how to train organizational thinking skills, feel free to email Sue at sueh@uniquelearners-suehegg.com! I will be happy to help brainstorm ideas specific to your child and situation.
If you want more graphic organizers or games for your unique learners, click here to check out my products on TPT.
Happy Organizing and Thinking!
Sue Hegg
Here’s your FREE literary elements graphic organizer! One is in color for laminating to use as a dry erase writing planner. One is in grayscale for copying to use as a handout for book reports.
